Identity

“I need to go home.” She said.

“Can you show me what I need to know from there?”

“No…” She hesitated. “I just…please, I just need to go home.”

“Elise.”

“Leave me alone!” She shouted at him, and his eyes glowed a slight green.

“You will show me what I need to know. Whether you show me from your home, or whether you show me in the stars, you will show me what I need to know.”

“Fine, just..” She shook her head. “oh God! Just leave me alone!”

“I know you don’t want me to.” He said. “Why do you say thing that you don’t mean?”

“What?”

“I can feel your thinking.” He said. “You’re fascinated by me. Why do you lie to me and to yourself so easily. Your being overcome by emotion like this is…unbecoming. Then again…” He turned his head down. “Who am I to disapprove?”

She took a deep breath and looked at him.

“I don’t think I can drive anymore.” She announced. “I need some time to catch my breathe.” Adapt. Adapt. Control. Its not so bad. You’ve got the situation covered. Just adapt. She could take him to the police station, but she wouldn’t know what this man could do. God of Fire. God of Fire. How do you call yourself that? Who knows what he’d burn, and how many people he’d kill if he knew she was going to abandon him at the police station. Dammit. “Can you wait for me to catch my breathe?”

“Yes.”

“Will you leave me alone after I help you?”

“Of course.”

“just where we are?”

“No. I need to know where we are, when we are, where is Ardalis, and why haven’t you heard of it.”

Too much. Okay, whatever. She’ll get this done. This was a situation of a lifetime. This man could control fire. Holy God, he could control Fire!

“Okay, whatever. I’ll help you.”

It took her a while to catch her breathe, and the whole time he just stood there, watching the road and the cars whizzing past with the drivers deliberately not looking at them as usual. This was a big city. Nobody cared about anybody.

Eventually, they started the drive back home. “I just live by those buildings up ahead.” She wondered why she said it the minute the words came out.

“Good.” He said it like he cared.

The walk from her car up to her apartment door seemed to last half a second. She was coming to terms with the fact that she had some kind of super-hero comic book character crazy thing walking with her, and before long her tall-seeming door loomed over her with its brown, half-splintered wood.

“Okay, this is it.” She opened the door. “Come in.” She was way beyond thinking of the consequences of letting some strange man into her home. A part of her was terrified of him and his angry eyes, yet another part knew that this was a science-fiction story that she was living, and it was an event of history that might be remembered forever.

“If you can sit down there,” She pointed at the half-ripped couch in her living room. “I’ll just get my globe.”

“Your globe?” He asked as he sat down.

“My globe.” She repeated as she came back in with a globe-model of the earth. It was about a foot in diameter, and it was held in a rotating axis.

“I know this.” Zohl’Noush said as he took the globe from her without asking. “This is earth.” He smiled like he finally saw something familiar. He brushed his hand over Asia, Africa and Europe. “These are the Eastern Lands and…”

“this is where we are.” Elise interrupted him as she stopped the rotation of the globe and put her finger on South Africa.”

“huh.” He said with some interest. “You people have advanced so amazingly. I supposed this area is what you call Africa, then.”